‘I don’t know if I want Lance’s team to win or not,’ said Fiona, obviously forgetting that, officially, it was her mother’s team. ‘He’ll be so… grumpy if they don’t.’
Hattie and Rose found themselves exchanging glances. ‘Well, there’s not much we can do about the results,’ said Rose.
‘And people need to learn how to be good sports,’ said Sam. ‘I think we’re doing rather well. More raffle tickets. How much are they again?’
Everyone was very generous in their buying of raffle tickets. ‘Mummy’s offering to take someone to the opera in that stately home,’ said Fiona.
‘What a very generous prize!’ said Nick.
‘Do you think so? Lance said that no one wanted to go to the opera in a muddy field, even if there was a picnic. Luckily Mum wasn’t in earshot when he said it!’ Fiona laughed.
Hattie realised that she quite often laughed when she was telling stories about Lance, as if they were actually funny, and didn’t reveal him to be utterly vile. She wondered if, deep down, Fiona knew what her fiancé was like.
The second half of the quiz began. Xander, who’d lost all his shyness by now, was very active in some quite rarified questions.
‘Mummy said people travel for miles to come to this quiz because the prizes are good and the questions are hard. Apparently pub teams like the challenge.’
‘So Lance will be up against some stiff competition,’ said Rose.
‘And so will we!’ said Hattie.
As far as she could tell, her team was doing very well. Her knowledge of history and literature had been used up and now it was mostly Nick, Xander and Sam who were coming up with the answers in the geography round. Fiona’s knowledge of the Kardashians had proven pretty useful too.
‘They’ll wish they had you on their team,’ said Hattie. ‘Lance has been sending longing looks in this direction.’
‘That may be because he’s missing you,’ said Rose.
Fiona laughed. ‘Maybe! I think the wedding is making him very stressed.’
‘It’s because he’s paying too much attention to detail,’ said Hattie.
The last question was answered, papers were gathered in. Both of Sheila’s teams stood up and went to visit each other.
‘That was so difficult!’ said Sheila. ‘No wonder Rachel finds it hard to get people. Although I was able to get the Dartford warbler question. We needed you,sweetie, for the popular culture although Camille was very good.’
Sheila’s old friend, Camille, still wearing the scarf that Hattie had seen in her vision of Nick, brushed away the praise. ‘It was Lance. He knew everything! You’re marrying a very clever young man, Fiona.’
‘I know,’ said Fiona proudly. ‘I’m so lucky he chose a goofball like me.’
‘Being good at quizzes isn’t very high up on the list of reasons to pick a husband,’ said Rose.
‘Although intelligence is,’ said Hattie. She agreed with Rose wholeheartedly but didn’t want to antagonise Lance.
Xander suddenly yawned. He could have been bored by the conversation going on around him or he could have been tired. Hattie looked at Nick, catching his eye.
‘Do you need to go?’ he said. ‘I’m busy first thing too. If you’re ready, I’ll take you.’
‘But you won’t know who won!’ said Fiona.
‘You can text me,’ said Hattie.
‘You might have won a raffle prize,’ said Sheila.
‘You can tell me about that too,’ said Hattie.
She suddenly felt uncomfortable and she couldn’t tell if there was an atmosphere or if she was just tired and bored, but either way, she wanted to leave.
‘I think we did really well!’ she said, when she and Xander were settled in Nick’s car and on the way home. ‘You really are good at quizzes, both of you. Although we may not have beaten Lance’s team.’
